During semiconductor wafer fabrication, extreme ultraviolet (EUV) light can be utilized in a lithographic process to enable transfer of very small lithographic patterns, such as nanometer-scale lithographic patterns, from a lithographic mask to a semiconductor wafer. In EUV lithography, an EUV light source provides EUV light to a reticle illuminator for transfer of a lithographic pattern. In the course of providing EUV light, an EUV light source generates debris as an emission byproduct. That debris can contaminate the sensitive and expensive collector optics relied upon to gather and reflect EUV light into the reticle illuminator.
A conventional approach to mitigating the debris produced by an EUV light source involves the use of multiple debris mitigation techniques in combination—effectively a debris mitigation module—to suppress or redirect high energy materials emitted from an EUV light source. However, conventional debris mitigation modules block only a portion of the debris produced by an EUV light source. The remainder passes through the debris mitigation module and encounters the collector optics, causing contamination. Consequently, reliance on conventional debris mitigation modules for containment of debris produced by an EUV light source results in contamination of the collector optics, reducing its operational lifetime, and making EUV lithography more costly than necessary.